Apple Music hits landmark 40 million paid subscribers

Apple Music has swelled to 40 million subscribers, according to a Tweet noting the occasion by the company's content director in France, Steven Huon.

The number has grown by more than two million versus what Senior Vice President Eddy Cue noted at the SXSW interview about two weeks ago. While neither Huon's or Cue's numbers are dated or precise, the expansion suggests that Apple Music growth rates are either still good, or climbing month-over-month.

Cue revealed his Apple Music figures during an onstage interview at the South by Southwest festival, saying the service recently gained two million new subscribers in a little over one month.

Cue added another 8 million are currently listening to Apple Music on a trial basis. The Apple Music chief added that there are about two billion people in the world who could be subscribers of Apple Music, Spotify or some other streaming service with more than half a billion customers accessing the App Store every week, all of whom are ripe for subscription.

"The real opportunity for music — and it's not about Spotify or us or the labels, it's about artists — is how do they get their music to everyone around the world and how do they get compensated for that," Cue said. "We both have to grow by significant amounts in order to get to the numbers which it should."

Apple Music recently greatly expanded with a Music Videos section, initially announced as part of iOS 11.3, alongside a number of other updates.

Appearing in the Browse tab of the Apple Music tab, the Music Videos section highlights some of the video content produced to accompany songs streamable on the service. The section aims to make it easier for subscribers to see videos for their favorite artists, as well as new music videos and those selected by Apple.